CONSTANT RATE/AIRSPEED descents are key to flying instrument approaches in airplanes-Flight Training

[@vincelam1998]

Staying ahead of the airplane was the best cue for me. Just got my instrument rating on Monday!

[@tjwilliams7246]

Jason, She did fantastic !! You explained this so well. It is how my instructor taught me ( 1995 ). Get that speed, decent and know your basic power setting to get that. Look at all the charts, time at 90 or 120. I am just blown away by how this is not taught enough or focused enough with some instructors these days. Thank you for the great job you do here.

[@itsPlanesUSA]

I can’t wait for the IFR training in the app, thank you

[@utah20gflyer76]

I do things opposite, I trim the plane for speed and then reduce power for decent. It’s extremely easy to follow the glide slope using small adjustments in power and I don’t have to worry about speed at all.

[@KevinW8BRY]

My instructor in my private pilot taught me to go to 90 for descending. Thanks for the additional tip on the 500fpm vsi that’s great.

[@NoahBullen-Smith]

I just wanted to say a massive thank you for this tip! I remember watching your original version of this video years back and I have to say that its been the most helpful aviation video I've ever watched. It made instrument flying so much more rewarding and being able to just set a power setting/airspeed and maintaining a specific vs all the way down without oscilating the whole way down the approach was one of the most satisfying moments of my whole training. Thanks Jason!

[@TheFinerPoints]

That’s awesome to hear! 🙌🏻 you’ll love the instrument course as a review when it hits

[@mrkc10]

Excellent video. She did awesome! Having a great instructor is so important. Hopefully since this video was made she’s instrument check ride complete and out there gaining real world experience. HWD is a great location to bring your A Game when your training for the next rating. Got my instrument there in March of 93. Again excellent video.

[@PilotCrawford]

Hi Kristin! Great job! Jason nice work emphasizing the power pitch relationship when establishing the constant rate descent. I like the way you broke that apart. ✌🏼

[@thecomedypilot5894]

What a perfect time for this video to upload, I'm currently a week into my instrument training! This video is definitely going to help me from here on out, thank you so much!

[@gordonfeliciano4315]

Great tip! Know those numbers and fly them!

[@abbieamavi]

your videos are honestly the best, your approach (hehe pun intented) and genuine interest and patience for your students is awesome. Thanks for these fantastic videos, I'm currently training for my CFII!

[@drcode4]

Great video and information Jason. Thank you for those tips on the proper descent. I'm going to practice this. Thanks again.

[@imflyboy_]

Great video, cant wait to try this on my next IFR lesson and approach

[@bayernrekordmeister344]

All that initial BAI 90 kts @ 500 FPM makes sense when you start flying ILS approaches. Control-Performance. Known control inputs to achieve desired performance.............then "tweak" it.... Always have target control inputs...hold it.... and then wait momentarily until the performance catches up and stabilizes... otherwise u b chasing the needles all day long.....

[@JustSayN2O]

It's been extraordinarily challenging to fly approaches in Florida where the thermals, and sudden disappearance of thermals, wreak havoc with constant airspeed and rate descents. If I can keep the descent rate between 300 and 700 FPM and airspeed between 85 and 99 then I'm satisfied. By the way, I'm looking for an location within the continental USA having plenty of DPEs for my instrument checkride. The few DPEs in my area all stopped giving exams. I prefer to avoid SoCal because of its extremely complex airspace. Other suggestions will be very much appreciated. I've been waiting since April !!

[@kristenenation]

Im training for my PPL and this makes more since to me than what I am being taught. I struggle with maintaining a constant airspeed.

[@TheFinerPoints]

It comes from old FAA books and really works. Check out our app, there is so much in there that will help you. apps.apple.com/us/app/ground-school/id1444387206

[@SVSky]

Doing instrument now, this is helpful, thanks.

[@ranjrog]

Great video! Thanks for the refresher!!

[@keithhoward9238]

Amazing training 👏 👌

[@ofirgal2210]

I actually kind of due this part of my approach in visually, airspeed, runway, vsi, runway. Instead of GS/CDI. As you said most descents are planned for 500 ft per minute, it works in full flaps 70kt and 1800rpm you get 500fpm fully configured in the pattern

[@JonMulveyGuitar]

I am in the middle of IFR training so this was a great tip clip. Thanks Jason! What about trimming? I didn't hear you mention it. I guess in this case it would be power, pitch. And trim? Or are you just using yoke pressure to hold the 500? I am flying a Mooney M20J. Thanks for all you do!

[@rand0m0nium]

Hi Jason, wondering if you use Xtrack on the garnin GPS as a tool when flying a course/fac/loc. It was a total game changer for me.

[@skyking2202]

Jason, at 3:14 you mention the "six configurations." Can you give us a sneak peek as to what those are?

[@BrandonSchmit]

Awesome!

[@loversRule]

Using this technique, when do you configure to capture g/s.

[@Parr4theCourse]

Great tips!!!!

[@cjoller2701]

Not part of the training but im curious… do the GPS’s you use actually route you around military airspace and city airspace? Or is that your job to preplan and map out no fly zones?? Also. Was wondering if the GPS brings you right to specific landing strips or if you have to look it up to get to the right one?

[@joeds3775]

its your job.

[@irishus99]

Can't wait for the IFR portion of the APP to drop. Any idea when it will happen?

[@pilotalex5677]

Awesome video Jason. Those tips are priceless. I have two question though when does trimming take place and how can you accurately start the descent knowing it takes some times to be configured that way ? Thank you 👍

[@christophandrykowsky607]

I am confused it’s the second video where pitch and power are reversed from common teachings: According to most books and boldmethods: What controls airspeed, and what controls descent rate? On final, you use pitch to control your airspeed, and you use power to control your descent rate.

[@johnboleyn4024]

I can see using slight pitch changes, to make small corrections in the vertical speed to stay on glide path, when closer to the DA or MDA. I wasn't taught to control the airplane in this manner, to stay on glide slope through the whole approach. I learned to configure the airplane(flaps, gear), pitch and trim to approach speed for stabilized approach, and the throttle lever was "connected" to the glide slope. Glide slope goes up, power goes up--glide slope goes down, power goes down. Airspeed doesn't change, trim doesn't change. Jason actually did this in the approach, but in a Rube Goldberg manner...:). After he pitched up, to change the vertical speed, the airplane slowed down, so he added power to get back to the target airspeed. Now, if he didn't get the airspeed exactly back to where it was before the power change, airplane needs to be re-trimmed, and is out of trim once he changed the pitch. By changing the pitch, now he affected the vertical speed, airspeed, and trim. He could have accomplished the desired outcome, which was decreasing his vertical speed, by just adding a little power. This is actually what he did in the end, after changing the pitch...right? The end result of everything he did, to stay on airspeed and glide path, was add power. If you are in your car, and want to turn left.... you could make three right turns, or just make one left turn....puts you in the same direction. For the record, I think Jason is an awesome pilot, instructor, and his videos and instructions are on point and helpful. I have used some of his stuff, for teaching my own students. We all don;t have to fly the exact same way, process information-to be safe and good pilots.I think if he really analyzed what he was teaching in this exact scenario, he would agree all he had to do was add a little power....because that is what he did in the end to stay stabilized on glide slope and airspeed.

[@nursenick06]

That would be for a normal visual approach in which you are at very much reduced power settings - pitch becomes very important for airspeed because it is more about energy management at that point. For instrument approaches, you aren’t necessarily in a glide configuration, but more of a power-on descent to maintain a constant vertical speed and ground speed. In that case, the very minor pitch changes needed to maintain that VSI at 500fpm will do very little to your airspeed/ground speed. You would only adjust the power if the airspeed started to suffer from the pitch change. It may seem a little like “chasing the VSI” to some degree, but it is a much more precise way to manage your vertical descent. If you can execute the initial setup of 500fpm/90kts accurately from the start, it is going to take very little in the way of pitch adjustments to maintain. I like to think of it in terms of the localizer needle - you don’t chase that needle, but rather make small changes to heading to keep on track or re-center that needle. It’s a game of small adjustments sprinkled with a little bit of patience to avoid making too many changes and snowballing yourself into a botched approach.

[@johnboleyn4024]

@@nursenick06 This is a good discussion, so let's keep analyzing it. Physics of flight don't change when in IFR conditions. You state-pitch becomes very important for airspeed and something about energy management. Could you explain more what energy management is, in regards to flying a stabilized approach. I am not familiar with this concept or been instructed in this area. When is pitch not very important? It's always primary in stabilized flight, in VFR or IFR conditions for airspeed. When you change pitch, airspeed changes, and then ground speed changes, which will cause more issues for maintaining glideslope at a constant airspeed.(even slight changes) Most VASI lights and pattern procedures for VFR operations are set up and designed for a 500 FPM descent, so pretty much all GA aircraft are doing a power-on(reduced settings) descent in the pattern and final approach. I know Jason teaches power off patterns and landings, but that is not the norm for most of GA. "You would only adjust the power, if the airspeed changes". Watch the video again, at the 7:00 -7:12 minute mark. Jason has her pitch up, and add power, because the airplane is very slightly low on glideslope, and slow on target airspeed. This is after a few seconds previous in the video, she states she is pitching down a little bit to maintain glideslope. I'm not making this up, it's in the video. "If you can execute the initial setup of 500fpm/90kts accurately from the start, it is going to take very little in the way of pitch adjustments to maintain."-for sure-like zero pitch adjustments if the airplane is trimmed for 90. The airplane will stay exactly at 90, unless you change the pitch, even if you make power changes, the airspeed remains constant. My point I'm trying to make...is if you are a little high or low on glideslope, just adjust the power setting, and you will get an immediate change in the vertical speed, without destabilizing the pitch and airspeed. That is much more precise and less chasing pitch and power settings, than changing the pitch-which changes groundspeed and trim setting, and then adding power to speed back up. I can see initially , when transitioning from cruise settings and configuring for the approach, to using pitch to establish your vertical speed, but not after setting power and trimming for the correct airspeed after established on the glideslope. I am going to try this method, though, on some practice approaches and see if it works for me to control the airplane "backwards" while on a glideslope, and see if it is more precise and stable than how I currently control the airplane.

[@upalaska]

you gotta at least finish with her popping out of the clouds and the runway dead ahead! That's the most rewarding part.

[@jimallen8186]

Better - Constant AOA descents. And you can also do constant AOA turns too.

[@larryk130]

Didn’t you post this video two years ago?

[@TheFinerPoints]

Something very similar, this just really happened the other day and it’s a great reminder. The algorithm tends to bury the old videos and new viewers Mia the concepts

[@larryk130]

@@TheFinerPoints I only know bc I rewatch your videoes often as a form of recurrent training and practice some of these moves. I did this in my airplane last week to see if I could still hand fly an approach instead of AP coupled. I am excited about an IFR component to the ground school. I wish there would be a commercial one too. I also wish you were based on the east coast :(

[@jimallen8186]

Pitch to 500 and power to 90? Really? Try Medium For Better Landings Try AOA and Power Techniques; it works for approaches too. Pitch for AOA else speed in lieu of while power for altitude in this case glide path.

[@billquillin1952]

APPLAUSE APPLAUSE APPLAUSE APPLAUSE